


Marks

by terajk



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Chromatic Character, Community: fic_promptly, Gen, Sibling Rivalry, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-12
Updated: 2010-10-12
Packaged: 2017-10-12 15:25:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/126350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terajk/pseuds/terajk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: "Zuko + Gaang: The moment he realised he actually <i>liked</i> these people."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marks

The Avatar didn't seem so special, not like this. 

Azula would've killed him, he knew--and he _was_ an easy target, with his eyes closed and his tattoos glowing softly in the moonlight. But Father had said to capture the Avatar, and Zuko was not his sister, no matter how much he wished he were.

He was not as heavy as he'd expected. Perhaps he'd gotten stronger in his banishment, on the rough seas, without the amenities of the palace he'd never gotten used to anyway. Or perhaps the Air Nomads were a lighter people, with bones less dense so that their element could carry them. Not that there was a "them"--not anymore.

When the tutor had told them what had happened to the Air Nomads--what had been done to them, not just by his own people, but by his own _family_ \--his stomach yawned into a bottomless pit. While his four-year-old sister drew pictures of bald men on fire, he sketched empty temples in his head: temples where no one prayed, temples full of dead that no one could burn incense for. (Or...whatever it was Air Nomads did to honor them).

And he had wept.

And his father had known.

But a small part of him, even then, had been glad--no, _relieved_ \--that at least all the Air Nomads were gone. Because with all that loss, if one were left...

A small ache in his shoulder.  
 _  
No._ The Avatar was the hope of his people. No, of...of the _world._ Even without his people, he had friends--a family--who protected him from harm. Who would risk their lives to keep him safe. He was like his _sister._

So why, when he saw the glowing tattoos out of the corner of his right eye, did he think of the mark over his other one?


End file.
